Sep 2015: “Bill Shorten moved to put the China-Australia free trade agreement at centre-stage of the Canning by election, doubling-down on his criticism, calling it a ‘dud deal’ that would result in Chinese construction workers being brought in on major projects worth more than $150 million”.
While Trade Minister Andrew Robb had repeatedly warned that China could pull out of the deal if Parliament quibbled over labour-market testing provisions [which were identical to other FTAs], Shorten suggested this was nonsense.
Mr Abbott listed the Labor figures supporting the FTA:
‘…Bob Hawke supports it, Bob Carr supports it, Simon Crean supports it, the Premier of Victoria, the Premier of SA, the Premier of Queensland, the Chief Minister of the ACT supports the free trade agreement’.‘The only people who are against this export agreement are Bill Shorten and the CFMEU. Now, it’s high time that Bill Shorten dumped the CFMEU and got with Bob Hawke, Bob Carr and all the other Labor leaders who know what’s good for Australia'”.
Source: SMH
In October 2015, according to the ABC:
“Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo paid $55,000 to have lunch with Bill Shorten in October 2015”
…
“One day after the October 20 donation, Shorten announced Labor would support the ‘speedy passage’ of the trade deal after securing ‘satisfactory legal protections that were not previously disclosed'”.
Source: ABC News
The rest is history:
December 2016:
According to the Winemaker’s Federation, wine exports from Australia to China increased to just under AUD $500 million in value for 2016 from only AUD $27m a decade ago
Source: Australian Food News
October 2017:
Wine Australia’s report shows total exports to Greater China hit $853 million in value.
Source: ABC Rural – ABC News
January 2018:
Australian wine export figures show record growth in 2017, a buoyancy not seen in the industry since 2004. The value of wine exports has increased by 15 per cent in the past year to $2.56 billion, and it was also a record year for volume, increasing 8 per cent to 811 million litres.Wine Australia CEO Andreas Clark, said the export figures were being driven largely by exports to China, a market that had increased by 63 per cent in the past year.
Source: ABC Rural